General Discussion

I got a new machine, it's good but i need a new video card. The guy told me i could put anything in it but i think it's a Dell. Is there anything i should avoid?

Dells usually have a power supply suffecient enough to power its peripherals, but when you get an add-on it typically doesn't have the power.  You will probably need a new power supply around 450 watts.  You would also need special stuff with the power supply that really gets into technicalities.  Atleast 1-12v with atleast 20 amps on it, a 24-pin connector, and 2 6-pin PCI-E connecters or a 8-pin depending on the video card..  If he said it can support anything, then he probably meant it can support a PCI-e card. 

would a Ge Force 7600gs need extra power? They have cheap ones here, i was going to get that.

Originally posted by pussaykat

would a Ge Force 7600gs need extra power? They have cheap ones here, i was going to get that.

The 7600GS does not require that much power, but it is quite an old card and probably won't be able to handle graphics intensive games. And by cheap I hope you mean $50 or less because for $80 you can get a 3850 that is vastly superior and doesn't consume much power at all.

First thing I'd do is take the lid of your case and look at the information posted on the side of the power supply. We are interested in the watts and the amps on the 12V rail.

Avoid overheating your little machine. Buy more power for it then upgrade to a GeForce 7000 series. I am going to assume that you are not that kind of gamer that plays games like Crysis, CoD, and Battlefield. If thats the case, you will be fine with a 7600 gs, with the 450 watt power supply(Will last you quite a bit) of course. Its all worth it though, you will need that extra power no matter what you are using your comp for.

Originally posted by GamerSteve

Avoid overheating your little machine. Buy more power for it then upgrade to a GeForce 7000 series. I am going to assume that you are not that kind of gamer that plays games like Crysis, CoD, and Battlefield. If thats the case, you will be fine with a 7600 gs, with the 450 watt power supply(Will last you quite a bit) of course. Its all worth it though, you will need that extra power no matter what you are using your comp for.

Dude, lets hear the price before you recommend him anything. The 7600GS is a dated card, there are much better cards available that are very cheap. Such as the HD 3850 for $80.

Ok first if you dont have 2gigs of ram, get 2 gigs fast especially if you have vista (if you have it, going back to XP would be a great idea)

I'd say instead of getting a 7600 go for a 8600 gt or better, not really expensive anymore and a 8600 will get you through pretty much every game. I got myself a 8600 gt with a nice fanless cooling system and I'm fully satisfied.

Okay okay lol. Agreed, 8600 GT or an 8500 GT will be fine. I'm personally using the 8500 GT which cost me about $100., and I can play almost every game without lag. Crysis is just s minor graphic problem, and blacksite is the only game with lag/Motion blur.

I really don't see a need for an 8600 anymore.  Its already 3 generations old, and for its generation and market it also didn't perform well.  Like another poster mentioned the 3850 now sells for $80, but performs 300% better then the 8600.  So I would say price is a good consideration considering you can now also find HD3650, and HD3450 in the sub $50 range.